By Jamie Fairley

There has been an age-old tie between sports and gambling.

With the huge rise of online sports betting in recent years, numbers across the globe have skyrocketed. The Gambling Commission has reported that online gambling is now the most popular form of gambling, with over 40% of revenue coming from online sites.

Pair this with the rise in gambling sponsorships in sport, with three Scottish Premiership sides having a gambling company as a front-of-kit sponsor and eight Premier League sides having a gambling sponsor, accounting for 25% of the Scottish Premiership and 40% of the Premier League that have a main gambling sponsor. The leagues pulled over 35 million views last season alone, equating to 59% of the total UK TV audience.

Bournemouth’s front-of-kit gambling sponsor (Catherine Ivill - AMA)

Whether it be jumping into the bookies before a match or sticking a fiver in the account here and there, there is a casual mentality towards sports betting among fans that is an obvious issue. This can in fact build up to more extreme cases in which addiction may take over. Studies have also shown that a history of betting can affect the chances of getting a mortgage later in life.

It is well known that bookmakers and online casinos are far from the most morally correct people. They use sly tactics to get as much traffic to their sites as possible. Whether it be the bright colours to draw the younger audience’s attention, celebrity endorsements such as Chris Rock striking a lucrative deal with BetMGM, or attractive offers such as Bet £10 get £40 free bets, which have no real monitory value out with the app and force the user to stake more in order to win their money back.

Euan Moore, 19, from Coatbridge, said: “I have used lots of welcome offers because they hook you in and the possibility of winning big from them feels achievable. It seems like free money that is too good to pass up on.

“Sponsors have caught my eye in the past before. You’ll be watching the Celtic game and every two minutes, you’ll see Dafabet on the kit and it makes you want to just stick a wee bet on.”

Moore, like many young men, has been exposed to gambling from a young age and has been waiting for the day to come when having their own account is a possibility, and placing a bet is as easy as clicking a button.

How gambling has taken over sport